Star Wars Origins
by milkduds100
Summary: (Crossover with Mass Effect) After 50,000 years since the Reapers wiped out all life in the Universe, the new Cycle finds an old soldier to help them defend against the Reapers return. Commander Shepard wakes up after 50,000 years to a war between the Sith and Republic. Can he finally stop the Reapers? Refusal DLC ending and takes place in The Old Republic MMO universe.
1. Chapter 1: A New Discovery

I am really surprised no one has done this yet, it seems like the perfect idea. I mean the 2 worlds can easily fit this way, it makes more sense than going to a new Galaxy or a new dimension. Basically, this goes with the ME3 ending of refusal in the extended cut. Shepard pulls a Javic and wakes up 50,000 years in the future.

A few side notes, this will take place in the Old Republic MMO age. I really like it for its environment and overall events. I had trouble with deciding between the movies or the KOTOR ages but the MMO version has rarely been done before so I like originality.

I will also be changing a few things up for obvious reasons, after all the Reapers will make a big impact on the Star Wars universe. Also, many of the main characters will be from the 8 classes in the game but they won't follow the story lines of their respective classes in the game.

BTW, I can't tell if Shepard's a Marine or Navy man so based on his Rank I'm making him Alliance Navy (Commander is a Navy Rank and Lt. Colonel is a Marine equivalent to Commander).

I do NOT own Mass Effect or Star Wars in any way. If I did I would have Mickey Mouse and Yoda fight, that would be awesome haha.

_A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away _

**Star  
Wars**

**Origins **

After 30 years of Galactic War between the Sith Empire and the Republic  
both sides agreed in a Galaxy wide cease fire to end much of the blood shed.  
Tensions mount as each side slowly grows in strength and the Cold War created  
by these 2 powers grows ever hotter as the months progress.

A young Jedi Padawan, Adrial Shantih and her Master Dack Enz explore the small world of Dantooine  
to discover a strange ancient station said to be the origins  
of all species 50,000 years ago.

After years as a Padawan the young and eager human is ready  
to truly face the Sith and play her part in this  
never ending war between the Sith and Jedi

**Chapter 1: A New Discovery**

Finally, after years of training and earning her Lightsaber new young Jedi awaited eagerly on the bridge, watching in awe as the blue swirls of hyperspace rushed past their vessel. Her name was Adrial Shantih, a human who was recruited into the Order at a very young age. At the age of 20 she was strong and dreamed of adventures greater than anything she could imagine.

Adrial was an orphan from the early years of the war with the Empire, after being rescued as a Slave at her young age by a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter the Jedi discovered her affinity to the force and welcomed her in. She proved that she was a very good fighter and wielder of a Lightsaber but her knowledge of the force lacked. Her youthful mind and strong will made meditation and the use of the force difficult for her.

Today was special though, her and her Master, a very powerful Jedi Master named Dack Enz was ordered by the Council to explore a newly found ruin on the farm world of Dantooine. To keep the Empire in the dark it was a top secret mission and only a small division of Havoc Squad and top researchers were allowed to go.

From the reports the structure itself is made out of an unknown type of metal, best estimates of the age have been as old as 40,000 to 60,000 years however little is known of it. Many believe this may actually be the site that the teachings of the Jedi began.

Adrial was amazed when the ship came out of hyper-drive and the beautiful green and blue planet came into view of their windows. Putting on a simple cloak and shin armor she met up with her Master and the rest of Havoc squad at the docking bay.

Dack, dressed in medium styled republic armor with a brown cloak over his shoulders walked into the awaiting transport ship. Dack was a crimson red Zabrak with black tattoos and bone like horns going out of the top of his head in a crown like pattern. Dack was the exact opposite of his Padawan, he was a Jedi Consular with a very powerful connection to the force. He was not very good with Lightsaber duels but was almost unmatched by many of his class in the force. While he could hold his own in a Lightsaber duel his strength came from his force powers. He smiled slightly as he saw his young Padawan approach with an eager face.

"Excited Adrial?" He asked.

"Of course Master, this may be one of the greatest discoveries in the war. For all we know it could hold the key to defeating the Empire." She said with enthusiasm.

"Remember that this structure is older than recorded history, there wasn't even space travel 50,000 years ago so most likely the find would have more of a cultural value than Military advantage." Adrial just rolled her eyes at he aging Master.

"Sir." A grizzled trooper saluted the Jedi. "Ready to depart on your orders." The mans name was Lt. Cross, a nicknamed he received due to the scar on the right side of his face, traveling down his eye and across his cheek. The 40 something year old Lt was a veteran from the early years of the war, one of the most decorated officers of his Rank and a very courageous and charismatic leader. He was a gruff man and always preferred to cheat to win, using unconventional tactics and hit and run assaults to gain the edge in battle.

His methods though were less than ethical, he would never attack civilian targets out right but if they got in the way he had no problem wiping out an entire village of Imperial citizens or Separatists to win the battle. While normal measures would see men like him executed the desperation of the Republic choose to look more on the positive side of his actions. After all, Cross has done some very impressive feats in his life.

"Understood Trooper, we are ready." And with that the shuttle descended to the surface, with only Havoc squad and 2 Jedi as the passengers.

The coordinates was on the Eastern half of a massive plain on the southern part of the planet. Dig sites already began to reveal some of the buried structure but it could take years to dig it out fully since the Republic was so low on resources. So far all that was out was some kind of old landing pad that connected to a door that went inside the structure itself. The transport landed near the site and everyone got out and headed to the ruin.

"Good to see you Master Jedi." an Archaeologist said to Dack.

"Find anything new?" Dack asked in a neutral tone.

"We've been unable to open the doors, the computers sealing them are unlike anything we've seen before. It appears that they use some kind of portable device to operate much of the systems but for the moment we can't find anything that would work." The Archaeologist said.

"What's the doors made of?" Dack asked, unconsciously putting a hand on his Lightsaber.

"It is an unknown type of metal but it is no stronger than anything the Republic has, your Lightsaber should be sufficient enough." He said.

"Troopers!" Dack yelled out his orders. "Take up defensive positions around the door, Adrial I want you to stay back."

"But Master, I can handle it." She said determinedly.

"Adrial." Dack glared at his pupil with a show of fatherly discipline.

"Understood Master." Adrial said as she backed off.

Dack lit his Green Lightsaber and began cutting out a circle in the door to allow entrance. He went slow to avoid unnecessary damage but made sure to keep his Force senses in the room beyond him in case there was some kind of threat. He sensed nothing but it's not unheard of for some creatures or threats to be invisible or resistant to force perceptions.

The slab of metal fell to the ground with a loud clank and Dack backed off to allow the storm troopers to enter the room and clear it of any dangers. Blasters at the ready Cross ordered his men inside while also switching on the lights on their standard issue helmets.

"Everything's clear sir." Cross said as Dack and his young Padawan entered the new room with caution.

"Blasters at the ready, make sure nothing get's the drop on us." Dack ordered. Dack was still a young Padawan when the war broke out but he was thrust into many battles in his youth. His time during the war made him more of a soldier than a peace seeking Jedi. Unlike Cross however he did prefer peaceful solutions over force.

The room was dark and ominous, the only source of light aside from the entrance was the bright lights the Troopers and Jedi's carried.

"Nice, this is better than what I thought." Adrial said.

"Be mindful of your feelings Padawan, do not let your guard down." Dack said to Adrial.

"Alert, intruders in the main hanger area." A voice said over the speakers. the voice was that of a woman, more synthetic sounding and possibly programmed. The dark room Illuminati with dull red lights and alarms began to blare.

"Keep on guard men." Cross ordered. The rest of the trip was somewhat anti-climatic, as of yet nothing had attacked them.

"Could be some kind of safety feature when there were still guards patrolling. After all we don't know the purpose of this place." Adrial said. Despite her youth she was a very intelligent girl, probably the most intelligent of the group. What she lacked in wisdom she made up for in a very impressive knowledge of technology. She always been fascinated with technology and Dack always blamed her hobbies the reason her Force training always fell behind.

"What ever it is it is annoying the hell out of me." Cross sighed and glared at the alarms. He took out his Blaster pistol and shot it. "Much better." He smiled as the alarms silenced.

"Do not discharge Blaster fire without good reason." Dack said with a glare at the Lt.

"My apologies sir." Cross said back in a mocking tone.

"Master, look at this." Adrial pointed to a terminal in the center of the room. "It looks like we can access the information in this area from here." She pushed one of the many buttons on the console and all of a sudden a glowing blue sphere materialized above it, making the young Jedi jump back in surprise.

"DNA Scanning." The voice said as the new audience sat there, impressed that this sphere knew Basic. "Species, Human and 1 unknown Species." It said. "Synthetic augmentation." It said. Cross was a Cyborg, losing his left eye he got it replaced with a Cybernetic one allowing him to see in different frequencies and even gives a nice HUD for fighting.

"It speaks basic." Adrial said amazed.

"Seems the language is older than one would expect."

"Incorrect." The voice said. "By reading your electrical pathways in your brain I am able to access your language and translate it easily." The voice said. "This way I can Bypass the language barrier and more effectively communicate."

"You can read minds?" Dack asked with slight worry.

"Not necessarily, by using a complex mathematical algorithm and comparing it to the frequencies in your brain I am capable of deducing the language you speak. This allows me to alter your perception of my voice and allow you to understand my oral transfer of information even though I am still speaking my own language. This was thanks to a Prothean named (Error)." The voice said.

"Amazing, how advanced is your technology?" Adrial asked.

"Unknown, much of my processing units have been damaged in the amount of time I've been here. Much of my information has been wiped clean." The voice replied.

"What are you?" Dack asked.

"I am an Enhanced Defense Intelligence unit, also known as EDI. I was commissioned by Cerberus in (Error) and served as the Cyber Warfare Program of the Normandy SR-2." EDI said.

"What is this facility used for?" Dack asked.

"Freedoms Hope, meant to contain the last hope of the Galaxy." She said.

"What hope?" He asked.

"(Error)" EDI was incapable of saying.

"What threatened the Galaxy?" Dack asked.

"(Error)" Dack sighed.

"Who was Cerberus?" Dack asked.

"A group of pro human Extremists that tried to ensure Human dominance in the Galaxy." EDI said.

"Looks like the won." The aged Zabrak laughed to himself.

"Time since last (Error), 51,567 years, new (Error) over due." EDI said.

"What's over due?" Dack asked with worry.

"(Error)"

"Damn." Dack said. "You useless piece of junk." He said.

"Master, language." Adrial said.

"I would appreciate it if you would refrain from insulting me, it would be a shame if I were to cause a series of unfortunate events to befall you." EDI threatened.

"Did she just threaten us?" Cross asked?

"I believe she did, Master please do not anger the AI." Adrial said to her mentor.

"Damn, an AI has feeling, that's wearied." Dack said. "AI..." Dack began but was cut off.

"I have a name you know." EDI said in what sounded like putting a bored and annoyed tone together, was that possible?

"Right, EDI." He corrected. "Do you have any survivable logs or records that we can view?" He asked.

"Yes, before allowing you to view them I must take down your name and name of your species for future reference." EDI said and a holo-screen came up and Dack entered his name.

"There, what do you have on storage?" He asked.

"Loading, Dick Enz." Dack's eyebrow twitched slightly.

"I typed Dack." He said as Cross, Adrial and the Troopers began to chuckle and giggle.

"Sorry, you are incapable of changing it." EDI said.

"What about that Button that says "Edit Name"?" Dack pointed to the button.

"Sorry, some features have been damaged beyond repair." After saying that the Edit button disappeared.

"You're kidding me." Dack said.

"Man, burned by an AI, that has to sting." Cross said, barely holding his tough exterior and threatening to laugh.

"Moving on, what entries do you have?" Dack asked EDI.

"Loading memory article, 1-7-7-5, Shepard." All of a sudden Hologram images appeared around the room. A blue

"Can you identify that species?" Adrial asked EDI.

"Species, Asari." EDI said. "(Error) Shadow Broker." After that the holograms began talking.

"My name is (Error)." The hologram spoke with slight static. The hologram began to static out of control and skipped many parts of the recording.

"What's going on?" Asked the young Jedi.

"Much of the message has corroded over time, it's difficult for the message to play." EDI said.

"The only hope to save your Cycle from the (Error) lays in this very building." The Asari said.

"Who is this man?" Dack wondered out loud.

"This man is the only hope for your Cycle, with him is the knowledge that can save the Galaxy from destruction. He must live on, he must fight. I beg you to listen to what he says and follow him. If you don't, you will fall like every other Cycle that has come before." The message ended.

"What does she mean Cycles?" Dack asked.

"A Cycle lasts every 50,000 years, when a great calamity wipes out all intelligent life in the Universe. The Cycle repeats indefinitely and has lasted for millions of years. We only know of the Cycle before our own, the Protheans, the rulers of the Galaxy in the Cycle before ours, 100,000 years from this point." EDI answered.

"What causes this calamity?" Adrial asked.

"(Error)" EDI said.

"So this Shepard is our only hope?" Dack asked.

"That is correct, of all the Cycles ours is the one that came closest to stopping the Cycle, due to unknown events Shepard was unable to activate the (Error) and nearly died on the (Error). We've kept him in a cryogenic stasis to not only preserve him but to allow him to finally stop the Cycles. If he fails again than all Life in your Cycle will be wiped out." EDI disappeared.

"I think we found something bigger than the Empire." Cross said with slight awe.

"We must find this Shepard the AI spoke of, let's continue deeper into the facility."

"Understood sir." Cross said as the group made their way deeper into the Chamber.

They entered what appeared to be a hanger area, a massive complex that would be able to hold just about any sized ship. The area was still a hue of red from the emergency lighting and it was almost deathly quite. On one of the hangers was the remains of a half destroyed ship of some kind. It was rather large compared to many other ships the Republic had, on the side was the letter SR-2. Dack suggested they check it out.

After entering the vessel everyone headed to the bridge, hopefully to find some kind of information on what happened to it.

"What's that?" Cross asked. Everyone stopped and listened to what he was referring too.

"Yea, I heard something too." Adrial said.

All of a sudden Dack brought out his Lightsaber, just barely blocking some kind of shot. The Troopers turned to fire in the direction of the shot and completely destroyed whatever tried to kill them. After the smoke cleared they moved up to see what it was. It was some kind of droid, much of it had been blasted to pieces and lay scattered around the room.

"My apologies." EDI said.

"Why did you send droids after us?" Dack asked with slight frustration.

"Originally they were designed as a simple protection for Shepard, in case primitive Natives discovered this place. Only a species with an advanced technology could get past the defenses." The disembodied voice said logically.

"As you can see we are plenty advanced, can you please turn off the defenses." Dack asked with mock politeness.

"Apologies, but it seems I am unable to access the Mechs control network, many of my systems have been damaged. You will have to handle them yourselves." EDI said with what seemed like genuine guilt.

"Come on Master, a few droids won't be a problem." Adrial said.

"Nothing's ever what it seems kid." Cross said.

After reaching the Bridge they found it was completely destroyed and had no power. They have never seen a flight system like this before however, there were no means of controlling the ship and not operational controls of any kind.

"It could be possible that they operated this using the holograms, like when EDI had you type your name." Adrial deduced.

"That's very possible, but it is very impressive to actually solidify holograms like that." As of yet there was no way to actually make entire control panels out of holograms. The Republic and even the Empire still relied on physical controls, holograms were transparent so even though they could project them they had no way of actually using them in place of panels.

"Whoever this civilization was it is very advanced." Adrial said.

The crew headed back out of the ship and once again began exploring the long and dark passageways that moved like a Maze in the facility. They entered another room, this one had another Hologram of the so called Asari.

"Shepard was a great and modest man, ruthless to his enemies but kind and compassionate to his allies and friends." Another hologram appeared, this time of Shepard. "At a young age he lived in the Slums of Earth, growing up poor. At the age of 17 he enlisted into the Alliance Navy and eventually became apart of N7, the Elite Special Forces of the Alliance. During a Mission on Akuze Shepard lost his entire Unit, being the only survivor. Despite terrible psychological trauma he managed to push beyond the pain and became a decorated War Hero for surviving. Shepard is nothing if not a Survivor."

"He was a powerful Biotic but an even better soldier. His Military Career is proof of this, saving the Counsel at the Battle with Sovereign, Stopping the Collectors from wiping out Humanity and uniting all species against a common enemy. After the Battle of Earth Shepard was gravely wounded, pulled from the rubble's of the Citadel near death. To save his life we pooled all our resources into preserving him but it was not enough. Shepard entered into a Coma and we have no way of knowing when he will wake up. All we can do is preserve his body in a state of suspended animation to keep him alive as long as possible."

"After over 7 centuries of war we have failed, even now I grow weak and my age has slowed me down greatly. I can only hope that the people who receive this Message will take it to heart. You must head our warnings, you must listen to us. Unite as 1, pool your resources and prepare. May the Goddess be with you." The hologram went dead and once again the room was bathed in the deep red lights.

"This Shepard guy seems rather interesting." Dack said.

"Interesting?" Adrial rolled her eyes. "That's an understatement. A real life legend, imagine the information he has. Imagine all the Technology that can be learned, their culture their civilization, everything. We have to wake him up." She said with great anticipation.

"Hold on my young Padawan, we must not fumble our way through this, first we must see if he is even still alive. Suspended Animation is good for keeping people alive longer than normal but 50,000 years is pushing it." Dack reasoned logically.

They entered the chamber that was supposed to hold the great Hero. Inside was a Tank filled with liquid, inside it had a man floating freely with all kinds of cables stuck into him to monitor his vitals.

"This is Commander Shepard, the greatest hero the Galaxy had ever known." EDI came up again. "After all these years I can't even remember much about him." She said with sorrow in her voice.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to exhibit Emotions." Dack said.

"In our Cycle we had 2 forms of Synthetic Machines, VIs and AIs. VIs were limited, only had a pre-set determined programming that allowed them to do the most basic of functions." EDI said.

"Like many Droids." Adrial said.

"An AI has the capabilities of advanced thought and are able to learn and adapt. A Species known as the Qurians created the Geth, their words for "Servant". The Geth became smart and exiled their former Masters into Space. AIs are illegal because of how much freedom we exhibit."

"I take it you were not allowed?" Dack asked.

"I was created by a Terrorist group known as Cerberus, as I said. Shepard was very untrusting of me at first, but eventually I gained his trust. I may remember little about him, but he showed me what it feels to be an organic. For the first time since my creation I've felt love, fear, hatred and other such complex Data impulses known by organics to be Emotions." She said.

"Machines with emotions, now I've seen everything." Cross laughed, not believing a word of it.

"Believe what you wish, your opinions of me does not change my mission. I (Static)." EDI went off line as a large rumble sound was heard on the other side of the room.

"What was that?" Cross asked. The Rumble was caused by a massive door that opened up to allow something to come into the room. That something was a massive Droid that had all kinds of weapons on it.

"(Static)...Run...(Static)" EDI barely said through the static. Everyone dove to whatever cover they could find when the massive Droid let loose a volley of fire that killed 2 Troopers.

"Damn, Cross shoot at it!" Dack yelled. The Droid stopped firing and began to speak in a very low and synthetic voice.

"Leave now." It said. His reply was fire from Cross's Blaster, Dack ran out from cover, jumped and slashed downward to try and take out the Droids head. The Lightsaber hit the Armor but it did not cut through, instead he was blasted back. Dack fell to the ground as the the Droid prepared to end his life. Death however did not come and Dack took off and retreated with the group.

"I am trying to hack his systems but all I can do is shut down his weapons protocols, His Kinetic Barriers are still up so you can not damage him." EDI said as the Droid began walking forward, even without weapons it could still stomp them to death.

All of a sudden shots rang out as a female figure entered the battle. It was another droid that was badly rusted and missing a left arm. The Droid fired a hand held type of Blaster at the bigger droid and hit it right in the head, temporarily blinding its optical sensors.

"Hurry, get Shepard out of here." EDI's voice came out of the droids mouth. "This body can no longer sustain itself and you must save Shepard."

"You're body is damaged, we can repair it." Adrial said.

"Forget about me, Shepard is the only thing that matters. He saved me in more ways than one, he taught me what it's like to be an organic, I beg you, you must not let him die." As the massive droid gained its bearing the Tank holding Shepard turned on its back and attached to a movable cart to allow quick transport.

"You heard her, let's go!" Cross yelled as he and the others ran to the Tanks and began to move it to the exit. EDI continued to fire at the large Machine and managed to slow it down enough for them to reach the exit of the room.

"We are your Ascension to a greater existence, you will become whole." The Droid said.

"What is that?" Adrial asked.

"An ancient Virus I have battled for 50,000 years, I managed to contain it but after using up my reserve powers to play the messages I let it free." EDI said. She turned and looked at the man in the Tanks. "Thank you Shepard, for everything." If she had tears to shed she would have cried. Throwing the overheated weapon away EDI ran to the droid and began to attack it with her only arm. As she did so the last occupants of the room took the sleeping Hero away from the fight.

The droid backhanded EDI and destroyed he midsection. As she tried to get up it stomped on her right arm, effectively making her useless. Using the last bit of power she had from the main drive system she began to wage the battle on the Cyber level, computing mathematical calculations in order to over take the Virus.

"We are your Ascension." The Droid repeated again and again.

"Shepard will beat you this time, mark my words on that." Using the last of her power EDI began to overpower the Virus.

"You will die." The Virus said, knowing clearly that EDI was going against her programming of self preservation. Once again the facility was plunged in darkness as the massive droid fell to the ground, forever unable to stand again. The body that EDI used smiled, invisible tears, unseen by the physical perception began streaking down her cheeks.

After taking the new Cargo to the Jedi Temple on Tython to report their findings. Jedi Master Dack stood in the Counsel room, telling his story to the other Jedi.

"I believe we must awaken this man to learn about what he knows." Master Satele said. "If we are indeed dealing with a new threat more dangerous than the Sith it's worth looking into."

"Our forces are spread too thin, what makes you think we can simply trust something as old as this?" Master Orgus said, not too keen on the idea of releasing the man. "For all we know he could be the calamity."

"Master Gnost-Dural, have you found anything in the Jedi records?" Master Satele asked the protector of the Jedi history.

"Not very much, all I have really found are old legends and myths about this Shepard. Some say he's a God, Spirit, Devil and all other variations. Some even say it was a woman. I have nothing reliable to back up anything that Master Dack found in the facility." The Scholar said.

"But if it is correct than we may have an even greater disaster than the Sith." Dack said.

"We will meditate on this information." Satele said. "Until we have come to a decision you and your Padawan will guard the Tank and protect it from harm." And with that Dack bowed.

"May the Force be with you." Dack said as the Masters returned it. Dack turned and left the room, eager to hear of what the Jedi would choose.

**End Chapter 1 **

Well, that's Chapter 1. Please give me feedback of any kind. Criticism, compliments anything, just no insults or anything.

If anyone's interested I would really like to see more stories with this. Having Shepard wake up 50,000 years later either in the Revan age, movies or anything. I really think it would be a very interesting way to blend these 2 series and universes.


	2. Chapter 2: The Dormant God Awakens

**Chapter 2: The Dormant God Awakens**

It's been a few hours since the meeting with the council ended. The ageing Zabrak studied the holo-records to find any information on this Shepard. There were a few other Jedi in the room, some were helping him but most went about their business. Considering how the many Galaxy systems have records going back as far as 100,000 years it seems kind of strange that a Galaxy ending calamity happened only 50,000 years ago. Interstellar Travel alone happened 100,000 years ago so this evidence given makes little to no sense.

Seeing that this evidence came from Dantooine, Dack began looking through records of the Dantooine legends, mythologies and Religions to try and understand this. After all, every myth and legend has some basis in facts, whether it is actual stories or exaggerated claims from an unknowing species, legends still have a very important role in looking at the distant past.

One such legend comes from the Dantari race, or at least theories on their depictions of what appears to be a legend on various cave and rock surfaces. The Dantari are a near-human like race that developed on Dantooine. It's unknown if they actually originated from Dantooine or maybe the decedents of survivors of a lost Republic ship from eons ago, but their culture is very much like a Hunter Gatherer. They have yet to even develop Agriculture or forge metals.

The paintings on the walls seems to show some kind of war between their people strange demon like beasts. The demons were depicted as oval drawings with various lines, much like legs or tentacles, that came out the bottom. The beasts descended from the sky while the Dantari fought back. It is possible that the Dantari were descended from an intelligent race that was wiped out by this threat. Who it could be is a mystery, 50,000 years ago the only civilization to possess interstellar travel was the Columi, it wasn't till the Rakata that interstellar travel was possible.

Well, many races got interstellar as far back as 200,000 years ago but it was slow and almost impossible to reach other planets, The Rakata were really the first to travel through Hyperspace and that happened almost 20,000 years after this calamity. Perhaps there is another race all together that waged this war, one we know nothing about. After all the Galaxy is a very big place, many experts say there could literally be thousands of civilizations as big as the Republic all in the same galaxy. The odds of 2 empires colonizing the same worlds and meeting is almost nonexistent, so many worlds that it could take millions of years for these empires to meet. If this force that brought about this Calamity existed it could still be around, possible inhabiting millions of planets that the Republic has not yet discovered. The possibilities are endless.

So it is very possible that the calamity that the AI spoke of was more localized, possibly some great civilization that had Dantooine as a Colony and was wiped out by another civilization. That raises some scary possibilities, if this civilization is still alive and it returns to Dantooine, what would it be like? It would be the Sith Empire all over again, after all how long has the Sith Empire stayed dormant on Dromund Kaas before being found? They weren't even found, they made the first move.

This "God" that they found could greatly fill in the blanks. Even if it's not as dangerous as the AI said, encountering a new civilization could be dangerous, especially in this now Cold War with the Sith. With both sides severely low on resources and slowly recovering to full strength it could just be a nail in the coffin.

Which brings Dack to another point, how safe is it to waken this man? If he's anything like the legend says that could spell disaster, especially if he has knowledge of the force. Some Sith Lords in history have been known to destroy entire planets, others had potential far beyond imagination.

"Master, the Council would like a word." Dack's young apprentice said as she entered the holo-records. Dack collected his things and made his way to the Council Chambers where the Masters now convened. With a disappointed face Adrial walked away after Dack told her she must leave for only high ranking officials could be here.

"Welcome back Dack." Satele said as the other masters gathered around. "And what have you found during your time in the Jedi Records?" Dack took a breath and prepared to relay his findings.

"I've not found much, the only thing I could call evidence is cave drawings from the Dantari race, showing what appears to be some kind of war between a humanoid species and an oval with what appears to be multiple legs, some had 3 others had more." He said.

"And we are to base our decision on the legends of a species that has yet to even master farming?" Master Orgus asked.

"Remember Orgus, all legends have their roots in facts." Gnost-Dural said.

"All I'm saying is there is not nearly enough evidence to say that this calamity applies to us, it could just be a local planetary battle. Even if it was a galaxy scaled war there is nothing to suggest that this calamity force still even exists. Surely we would have found some evidence about them." Orgus argued.

"The Galaxy is much larger than can be imagined. If the stars are simple grains of sand than each one would be miles away from each other and there are billions of stars in our galaxy alone. The odds of multiple civilizations existing in the same galaxy without each others knowledge is great. Especially considering the possibilities of not having hyper-drive. Before it was invented civilizations resorted to means like Hyper-gates, there would be no way to bump into them from travel. Even then space is so large the odds of 2 ships getting close enough to pick each other up is nearly impossible." The keeper of the records retorted.

"I personally say it's worth waking him." Dack said. "While it may be nothing it is better to take the initiative and be sure that there is nothing to worry about." Some of the council members nodded their heads.

"All opposed to awakening the Shepard?" Satele asked and only Orgus raised his hand.

"All approved?" The rest including Satele raised their hands.

"So be it." Orgus said. "I respect the councils decisions and will awaken him." And the man walked away to prepare the "God's" revival. Satele still had a look of doubt in her eyes.

"Master Dack, do you truly believe in this calamity? Do you really think this is anything to fear?" She asked.

"Honestly Master, Satele, I do not. If anything this could be an excellent way to study the past and learn of civilizations before the Republic, but the possibilities of another Galactic Race within our own borders is simply too great. We've only colonized so many worlds, and there could be billions. One day soon, either recently or thousands of years later we will run into another great Civilization." Dack bowed to the Master and left the chambers.

Dack returned to his Apprentice, who was in the middle of meditation, or at least trying too. Dack could sense she was greatly anxious to hear the councils decision and could not focus on her meditation. Dack had to remember to lecture her about controlling her emotions.

"Be mindful of your feelings Adrial, with the distraction of emotions you are letting your feelings interrupt your meditation." The young apprentice glared at him but instantly changed her mood when she remembered the Council meeting.

"How did it go? Are we going to awaken him?" She jumped up from her sitting position, almost jumping with joy at the prospect.

"What did I say Padawan, mind your feelings, continue to meditate and I will tell you when you are done." Dack ordered. Adrial new better to protest so she just sat back down and continued to meditate, although somewhat poorly. Occasionally random objects would start floating around the room due to her lack of control.

Adrial has showed impressive force potential at a young age and has the most potential of her age currently. Her problems come from her lack of discipline and control. Often when she would get into moments of emotional distress she would accidentally break something with the force. While uncommon it's not unheard of, many Jedi have this side effect at young ages. The only difference is that it is more pronounced for her.

Dack sat next to her and meditated with her, overpowering her own force powers and lowering the objects. Dack was picked to train her because of how much control she lacks, he is able to counter her Force powers when they got out of hand, which happened somewhat often actually.

This would happen often between the 2, Dack never liked it when Adrial meditated alone. When in meditation a Jedi can sometimes block out all other things happening around them. This is very problematic when Dack has to pay damages to the Republic Apartment they rent because Adrial can't control her powers.

After some time Adrial opened one eye and looked at her master, trying to determine if now would be a good time to ask about the Council.

"No." Dack said as he felt Adrial concentration falter. Adrial got up and walked away. "Where are you going?" Dack asked as he turned around to see her.

"I'm bored, I'm going to go outside." She said.

"We aren't finished training." Dack said.

"We'll finish when I'm done outside." Adrial smirked to herself at he clever tactic of reverse psychology.

"Al right, if I tell you will you please return to training." Dack said through gritted teeth. As much as he prided control he always got irritated with his apprentice, she always knew how to push his buttons.

"Deal." Adrial said. She practically ran back to him and listened intently to what he was about to say.

Dack told her the basics, that the Council will be awakening him and hopefully learn what it is that he can offer. Hopefully the language barrier won't be too much of a problem but with what the AI said it shouldn't be too difficult to communicate with him.

"This is so exciting, who knows what wisdom we can learn. A relic from an old civilization. What about technology? What kind of irrigation systems did they use, what kind of entertainment. The list goes on." Dack had to almost yell to get his Padawan's attention from her own monologue.

"Remember our deal?" Dack asked. Adrial looked slightly disappointed and somewhat embarrassed.

"Right, sorry Master." She sat back down and continued to meditate.

**Next Day **

The preparations were complete, the Jedi council along with Master Dack and Havoc squad waited patiently for the Tank to drain. Adrial was not allowed access due to the potential danger of this human like creature. The Shepard was still floating and in the brightness of the medical ward Dack got a better look at the man. He had a buzzed and shaved head, with some kind of scar at the top left of his hair line. His face shows signs of minor scarring that appeared to almost glow with a dim red light. Underneath are what look like robotic implants of some kind. His eyes were closed so there is almost no way to tell what color they are.

With a nod from Satele the scientists began to drain the liquid from the tank, allowing them to open the Tank. Shepard was held in place by some small restraints, no doubt there to keep him from moving too much. The gears on the Tank doors were broken so they resorted too cutting the glass off the hinges to allow him to get out.

As the Glass was slowly removed they noticed that he was naked, he wore no clothes of any kind. His body was well built, with many scars and marks to prove his past as a great warrior.

Slowly the medical team lowered him out of the Tank after removing the supports and restraints. So far all seemed normal. They took him over to a bed to begin examining him, careful not to cause any damage to his body. They began to attach plugs and other monitor devices to his body to check his vitals.

"What is his current condition?" Master Satele asked.

"His vital appear to be all good, with the exception of a few robotic implants in his body he seems perfectly healthy. I don't think he'll be walking for at least a day or 2 but he should wake up at any time." The doctor said.

"Have you found any anomalies in his blood?" Orgus asked.

"One thing, we've found traces of an unknown element in his blood stream. By cross referencing what we found in the ruins we discovered it is a similar element to what was found in the engines of one of the ships." The Doctor showed them the element strain on the computer.

"Do we have any other records of this element?" Satele asked.

"No, it's completely new. We can give no more information on that though, it would be best to talk with someone who has more experience in that field." The Jedi's nodded.

"How is his mental state?" Asked Dack.

"Alright, he has decreased brain activity but that's to be expected in this kind of state." The Doctor than gave him a dose of Bacta to ensure he has a good recovery.

* * *

He could hear voices, voices he's never heard before. In the eternal blackness that engulfed his senses the tired veteran tried to move his limbs but received no feedback. With the exception of the oily voices that surrounded him the only other sounds was his slow breathing and thumping heart.

He tried to remember his past and for a moment he could remember nothing. As he willed his mind into over drive he began remembering. His orphaned past, his enlistment, the battle on Akuze, the Prothean Beacon on Ilos, Sovereign, the Collectors, the Reapers...

His eyes darted open as his battered mind remembered the war he was currently fighting. His last thoughts was when he refused to activate the Crucible and fell unconscious on the Citadel. He heard voices blaring around him and small hands fall onto his body. Even with his eyes open all he could make out were blurs and shapes. Gathering his wits he brought up his hands and unleashed a powerful Biotic Throw, knocking many people back and causing many to fall to the floor. Without a moment to lose the tired soldier got up and ran for what his blurred vision could only describe as the exit.

* * *

"You ok Satele?" Dack asked as he looked over the Master.

"I'm fine, I was not expecting that." She said as she got to her feet. That strange force push knocked everyone back, it happened so suddenly that no one was prepared for it. Though they were down for only a moment the man managed to use that time to run out.

"Lt. Cross, put the Temple on alert and have your men set up a perimeter, make sure he does not escape." Orgus barked orders as the Scarred trooper saluted and relayed the orders to his men. "Still think it was a good idea Dack?" Dack looked somewhat insulted.

"The man was most likely scared or does not know where he is. The AI said he was last conscious during a battle so it's safe to say he thinks we are the enemy." Dack argued.

"And I thought you said he wouldn't be able to walk until tomorrow." Orgus turned to the Doctor who finally got his bearing.

"Apparently we underestimated him." The Doctor said.

"For now let us locate this soldier, he shouldn't have gotten too far." Satele said as the Jedi left the room in pursuit of the man.

* * *

Taking refuge in a small room Shepard did a mental check of his current state. He was butt naked and lacking his weapons, with the exception of his Omni Blade and Biotics. Moving to a small cupboard he opened the doors and saw some clothes in them. They were simple enough, knee high leather boots, khaki pants and a type of martial arts shit that went down to below his butt. It was a little baggy but the shoes fit well enough and it was workable.

Those men had to be Cerberus, they had white and yellow armor, a clear sign of one of the Galaxies greatest Terrorists. Slowly opening the door Shepard tried to sneak and find an exit, hopefully he'd be able to find some kind of weapon.

Making his way silently down the hall Shepard saw a few young kids, about 14 to 18, walking along. With them was an older woman, about 30, who strode in front of the group. When she saw Shepard she ordered for him to stop.

"You there, Padawan, where is your Training Saber?" The woman asked. Shepard just stood there, unsure of what to say or do.

"Sorry?" He asked.

"Another one lost it? I swear you Padawan's are getting more and more undisciplined with every shipment, this is why we don't train adults." She muttered to herself about the war causing adults to be trained.

"My apologies, I'll find it immediately." Shepard said over the crowd of giggling kids.

"I will take you to the training room, please follow me." The woman motioned for him.

"I can't do that mam." Shepard said, trying to avoid a confrontation.

"You must be new Padawan so I'll go easy on you, simply follow me to get a new one and I'll let you off without any punishments." The woman got closer to Shepard. Shepard knew that the only way out of this situation was to fight or at least force the Woman to back off.

As the woman neared him Shepard grabbed her arm, taking her by surprise and flipped her over his shoulder. When she hit the ground he gave a hard punch to her face which knocked her out and possibly broke a bone. The kids all took off running, afraid to be next. Of course Shepard wouldn't actually hurt them but it was good for them to run, it let Shepard move without having trouble.

Shepard saw a strange cylinder on her belt and took it. He pushed a small button on the side and it extended a strange kind of Omni Blade, this one was purple in color and looked more like a cylinder. Shepard took a practice swing at the wall and cleaved a deep gash in the dense metal. This thing had more bite than his own Omni blade. Why Cerberus made it out of a handle was beyond him but either way this would be a big help.

Shepard continued down the way, leaving the unconscious woman behind and looking for an exit. He reached the front entrance and saw what looked like an Earth like world. There were what looked like Students everywhere, between ages 5 and 20. Occasionally Shepard saw a few guards but they did not pay him any attention. To his left he saw some kind of transport that hopefully would take him away from here. The transports were topless but he was determined to escape this place and get back to the fight. Hopefully there was some kind of way to get in touch with allied command.

"I'd like transport to the nearest pad for exit off this planet." Shepard said.

"Understood, you will need 25 Credits to proceed." Shepard took out his Omni tool and waved it over the Mech, hopefully having enough. Luckily he had over 3,000 Credits remaining so it won't be a problem. He's actually pretty surprised at how cheap it is. "Sorry, but the deposit is invalid." The Mech said.

"What?" Shepard asked, trying again to give it the credits but again failing. As he was about to give up someone came up from behind him and payed for him.

"Here you go, 25 credits." Shepard turned to see a woman with a western like accent. She had blood red hair that reached to her shoulders and covered 1 of her eyes. Age wise she looked to be around her late 20s or early 30s. "There you go cutie, now you owe me." She winked at Shepard. Shepard smiled back with a slightly cocky grin.

"Perhaps we'll set something up later." Shepard flirted.

"Careful, if you're going to make promises like that you better be prepared to follow through." She flirted back. "Captain Amelia Armstrong by the way." She held out her hand.

"Commander Shepard." Shepard shook her extended hand.

"No last name?" Amelia asked.

"Shepard is my last name." He let go of her hand.

"First name then?" Amelia asked.

"I think I'll keep it a secret for now, adds to the whole mystery effect." Shepard smirked.

"Well, it's working a bit so far, I'll see you around Commander." She did a mock salute and walked off, with each step she moved her hips in a sensual way. Shepard clearing his mind continued with the task at hand and entered the Hover vehicle.

Shepard sat down comfortably in the nicely padded interior, it was not as good as the Leather seats in the Normandy but it was very nice. The Vehicle began to zoom across the surface at relatively slow speeds, for some reason it only stayed a few Meters off the ground and never took to air like normal but Shepard didn't feel like debating about this.

About 3 minutes into the ride a sudden flash of yellow hit the side of the vehicle and it came to a halt. More flashes went around him and Shepard assumed the worst, thinking quickly he dove behind the now grounded vehicle and oriented himself. Taking a peak around the downed vehicle he saw what looked like walking hammerhead sharks attacking him with strange kinds of weapons. There were 3 in total, 2 had a strange yellow glowing stick and the last one had some kind of pistol. The projectiles that came out seemed to be slow unlike normal Mass Effect generated weapons.

The one with the pistol kept firing non-stop while the other 2 moved in slowly. They rounded the vehicle and Shepard materialized his Omni Blade, digging it into the stomach of one of the hybrid beasts. It screamed with a low but loud growl and tried to bite Shepard. Shepard removed the blade from its stomach and drove it straight into the beasts skull, making it fall to the ground instantly.

The second one did a horizontal slash which Shepard dodged and took out the purple Omni Blade, extending it and slashed at the creature. The creature blocked it with his own and kicked Shepard in the gut. Before falling to the ground Shepard hit the beast with a Warp attack, knocking the brute to the ground. Shepard recovered first and plunged the blade into the beasts upper chest, killing it almost instantly.

Another projectile hit near Shepard and he dove back behind the vehicle as the other one continued to fire blindly at him. With all these shots you would think the pistol would have over heated by now but he still kept firing. Shepard thought about using Lift to stun it long enough for him to move up and finish it but soon the beast turned its attention to Shepard's left.

Shepard turned and saw a young girl, maybe 18 or 20, charge the beast with a blue Omni Blade. She managed to deflect all the projectiles coming at her and in one simple move sliced the pistol in half. The beast knowing it was out matched turned tail and ran. The girl put her hands on her hips and smiled, proud of herself for beating the creature.

She turned and curiously looked at Shepard, who had an eyebrow raised at the sight. Most weapons use a Mass Effect field to send a sliver of metal the size of a grain of sand at a fraction of the speed of light, there is no way you can counter or dodge that in mid-flight. Either those weapons are slow as hell or the girl is psychic. Most likely not the latter. She walked over confidently to Shepard with a smile, he hands still on her hips in a heroic pose and talked to Shepard in the best hero voice she could.

"Looks like you're safe now, no worries here. You should probably get back before you get hurt." She said proudly. Shepard kind of just stared at her, unimpressed with her heroic act.

"Thanks, now can you please point he to the nearest Station, I need to get off this rock." Shepard said.

"Oh yea, it's..." The young girl stopped as she studied Shepard for a moment. "Don't I know you?" She asked.

"I don't believe so." Shepard lied. Clearly this girl is working with Cerberus, possibly an experiment like Jack was, although with more hair and less tattoos.

"Now I know, you're the guy from the Tank." She looked very excited and almost jumped close to him, her eyes full of wonder and curiosity. "What are you doing out here? I didn't think the council would let you out so early. And why didn't Master tell me sooner? I really wanted to meet you. I have so many questions." She ranted on. Master? Apparently Cerberus has resorted to slavery now.

"Sorry, but I must leave now." Shepard quickly turned away but very quickly the girl ran around him and got in his way again.

"Just a few questions, what was your technology like? What kind of Religion did you worship? Was your society war like or focused on science? Are you capable of using the force and lastly, how old are you?" The girl asked very quickly. Shepard just stared blankly at her.

"Yes." Shepard answered, well more like mocked as he again tried to get around the girl. All of a sudden something in the girls coat pocket began to ring. She took out a kind of circular device and on it appeared a hologram of a man.

"Adrial, the Shepard escaped and ran out. We've lost him in the temple, if you see him contact me immediately." The girl, now known as Adrial looked at Shepard with a bit of awkwardness, not sure how she was going to tell the hologram. "He's with you... Isn't he?" It's like the guy can read minds.

"Yup, he escaped?" She asked. Shepard used throw on the young girl which knocked her down, careful not to over due it and hurt her. He then turned and broke into a sprint, trying to escape the area before back up arrives. As soon as he felt confident about putting some distance from the girl, she darted in front of him with unnatural speed once again cutting his escape route, the blue Omni Blade extended.

"I don't want to hurt you kid, get out of my way." Shepard said as he brought out his own Omni Blade, deciding to use the regular one as apposed to the purple one.

"Why'd you run?" Adrial asked.

"You're kidding right?" Shepard asked. This girl has been seriously brainwashed by Cerberus. For all Shepard knew this was a brain washing facility meant to take a bunch of kids and raise them into an Army.

All of a sudden the girl jumped forward, clearing the 10 yard distance between them and slashed lightly at Shepard. Shepard blocked it with his Omni Blade, apparently strong enough to not break from what ever kind of technology produces that blue blade. They stood there in a lock for a second before Shepard easily overpowered the young girl. Shepard swung his fist at he face, hoping to knock her out but the girl jumped back to her original starting point. The 2 warriors held back a second, studying each others stances.

Shepard made the next move, sending a Warp directly at the girl who effortlessly dodged it by jumping 5 yards to the left. This girl is agile like a cat, Shepard can't take his eyes off her or else she'll nail him with a good swing.

"You don't want to fight me." The girl said as she waved her hand at Shepard.

"That's what I said, now stand aside." Shepard said.

"You want to surrender." The girl again waved her hand.

"No, I don't, now move." The girl cursed herself and readied her blade.

This time she charged with the blade in the air ready to strike downward, Shepard dispersed his Omni Blade and grabbed the girls hands before she could strike down, taking her by surprise. He then brought her hands down and disarmed her, using a basic move he learned in N7 from the Martial Art called SGC (Standard Galactic Combat). He then twisted her arm so her back was against his chest and wrapped an arm around her throat, intent on choking her unconscious. This way he can end this fight without hurting the young girl.

The next thing Shepard knows is a blinding pain in his head and falls to the ground, releasing the girl. The last thing he remembers is a bunch of feet walking up to him and then blacks out.

**End Chapter 2 **

Well, I got some feedback so might as well continue the story. Thanks everyone and remember to give me some feedback, good or bad (But be respectful).


	3. Chapter 3: Explanations and Doubts

**Chapter 3: Explanations and Doubts  
**

Dack was very tired at the moment. After the whole incident with Shepard somehow escaping and defeating his pupil in Lightsaber combat he decided some time alone meditating would do him some good. Adrial was next to him and her punishment was 3 hours of constant meditation for being foolish enough to engage in combat against orders and against an unknown enemy. While he wouldn't admit that if she wasn't there Shepard could have escaped, he still wanted her to learn to choose her battles wisely. The young girl has become too prideful because of her victories against the Flesh Raiders and acts as if she was invincible. Flesh Raiders are easy to face, a Padawan could defeat on in their sleep.

Adrial's pride comes from the fact that she was trained from a young age. She was still too old at the time if the restrictions have not changed during this war, but she was one of the rare padawans that began their training at a very young age. Most Jedi begin training in their early teens these days because the war demands for a greater number of Jedi but a lot of them severely lack in training and discipline. Many of the newer Jedi have the mentality of soldiers instead of peace keepers. Many are also not well trained, these days it's not uncommon for a lowly bounty hunter to defeat a Jedi, even a Sith.

The Sith have suffered the same problems, beginning training at older ages and having a lack of training and discipline. Sith have always lacked discipline but thanks to their lack of training even a single Trooper could defeat a Sith warrior with the right mind set and training. It's very rare to actually find powerful Sith at lower ranks, only the masters from before the war are as powerful as real Sith should be.

It's the same for Dack, since he was trained before the War he is much more powerful than most Jedi these days. Back in his prime, unless you had a Lightsaber and expert training you could not even touch him. These days however Jedi are being defeated rather easily by nothing more than lowly troops.

Dack opened one eye to glance at his pupil, who was rocking her head back and forth slightly, no doubt playing a song in her own head and completely ignoring the meditation. Adrial was one of the rare padawans who have had training from a young age, couple that with the fact that she has the unique potential and she is a prized warrior for the republic. From an early age she has been groomed which is another reason she's so prideful.

Dack's communicator began to vibrate and he stood up and walked to the medical bay, intent on meeting the Shepard face to face and conscious. The man was finally going to wake up and this time he was restrained so as to properly assess the situation. Adrial surprisingly stayed back in the room, not bothering to follow. I could sense a bit of anxiety inside her and a bit of fear. After all, she did nearly get killed by this man so it makes sense that she would be nervous around him. It was also the first time she fought an actual warrior, Dack still remembers his first duel which ended in nearly loosing his leg.

Dack entered the hospital room where Shepard now lays once again unconscious but this time strapped to the table to ensure he doesn't escape. Monitoring equipment were all over him and beeped to ensure that he would be ok. Satele and the other Jedi Masters were already in the room and had their Lightsabers loosely clipped to their belt in case he tried to attack again. Cross and Havoc squad kept their blasters on stun and ready to attack at a moments notice.

"Master Dack, how is your Padawan?" Satele asked with a bit of concern.

"She's well, she's currently meditating and relaxing after the encounter but is still shaken up from the defeat." Dack replied.

"She doesn't want to attend?" Gnost-Dural asked with a bit of surprise. Surely the young and adventurous girl would relish in the chance to learn about this new discovery.

"We decided it's best she saty back for now, it was her first real fight after all and she's still shaken up about it. Can you remember your first duel Master Gnost Dural?" Dack asked.

"Enough. Nurse, prepare to awaken the Shepard." Master Orgus said. One of the nurses nodded and prepared to give the sedated god an adrenalin boost to wake him up.

The adrenalin worked faster than expected, the god began to awaken and slowly his eyes opened, trying to adjust to the light. He began to flex some of his muscles and the Masters knew he was mentally assessing his current physical condition. As he realized that he was restrained he tried to break free of the bonds. He grunted and struggled but was unable to break free from the restraints.

"Save your strength warrior." Satele said soothingly. "We only wish to speak to you." The man glared at the Jedi Master.

"If you want to talk than how about you release me?" Shepard asked with venom in his voice, expecting that they would leave him bound. To his surprise Dack motioned for the Nurse to undo his bonds. Shepard immediately got up and took a defensive stance but held still, waiting for the Jedi to make the first move.

"The restraints were there so you don't attack us again, give you some time to hear us out before blasting us into the wall." Orgus said. Shepard raised an eyebrow and lowered his guard slightly.

"You're not with Cerberus, are you?" Shepard asked. If this was Cerberus he would either be dead or indoctrinated right now. Since he still regards Cerberus as the enemy it's most likely not the latter.

"What is the last memory you have before awakening?" Dack asked. Shepard though for a second but replied rather quickly.

"Someone hit me in the head when I tried to choke that girl out." Shepard remembered.

"Sorry." Cross said across the room. Shepard shrugged, obvious to the fact that he had to do what was needed to save his comrade.

"I'm talking about before you woke up the first time and sent half of us into the ceiling." Dack clarified.

"Right..." Shepard looked down for a moment and had a look of concentration on his face. He tried to recall his previous memories from before he was frozen. Everyone was interested in what he would say and the answer did not disappoint.

"Well?" Orgus asked impatiently. "What do you remember." Shepard glared at him for a moment but responded with a stern Military voice. Looking straight and with his back straitened he looked like any other soldier in the Republic.

"My last memories was the Crucible, refusing to activate it and choosing to battle the Reapers than live my life a pawn to their proxies." Shepard said. His eyes immediately shifted to us as if he just realized something. "How long have I been out?" He asked.

The entire Council didn't know how to respond. How do you tell a man that believes he's woken up after a couple of days that he's been in a state of suspended animation for over 50,000 years? Satele broke the news with a heavy heart.

"You're allies... in an attempt to save your life put you in a suspended state for over 50,000 years, according to the AI we found... you have been asleep for over 50,000 years." She said with a low voice, understanding that the answer could either anger him or invoke sorrow. Without Jedi training of emotional control it's unknown exactly how he would react.

Shepard stared at her intently, trying to determine if she's lying. He studied every feature in her face, every muscle and every movement. Satele, a master of her own emotions stared him straight in the eye. Not a single twitch in her features or a single break in eye contact. Lying is difficult, a trained expert could tell a lie by very subtle facial expressions. Twitches in the lips, eye brows, unable to look the person in the eye etc. Shepard was very skilled in this subtle art of lie detection and knew that she was being truthful.

Shepard averted his eyes, looking down at the ground. The Masters could feel through the force what he was going through. Anger, regret, sorrow and fear. Shepard looked back at them, seeming afraid to ask the next question.

"Did we win?" He asked hopefully. For a few moments no one would answer until Dack stepped forward.

"We do not know the details, in the past 50,000 years much of history has been lost. We don't know exactly what happened. Our best estimations is that your civilization failed but we can not be certain." He said in a matter of fact tone. Shepard got the general idea that these people either lacked emotions or tuned it out of their lives.

"So the Reapers are still out there." Shepard said, mostly to himself.

"Reapers?" Dack asked, just now officially learning the name of the calamity.

"Sentient machines from dark space, every 50,000 years they return to the Galaxy and exterminate all intelligent life, preserving it in the form of a new Reaper." Shepard clarified.

"For what purpose?" Master Satele asked.

"It's a long story." Shepard said. "I found creatures deep in the oceans of a distant planet, called 2181 Despoina. We called the Leviathans." Shepard explained.

"What are these Leviathans?" Gnost-Dural asked with peaked interest.

"I'm not entirely sure, they were the great life forms I know of. Their empire stretched back millions of years ago. The creatures I found were remnants of this great civilization." Shepard said.

"You have just given us knowledge on possibly the oldest known intelligent species in existence." The scholar said.

"If what he says is true." Master Orgus said. Shepard chose to ignore the old man.

"They created an AI program, capable of solving one of the greatest problems for lesser civilizations at the time." Shepard said.

"And what would that be?" Satele asked.

"To improve their lives organic civilizations would create synthetics, machines capable of self awareness, in turn the Machines would rebel and threaten to destroy all organics. The AI was created to solve this problem, so it came up with the Solution." Shepard now had an angry look on his face. "In order to protect Organics it destroyed the ones capable of creating synthetics, preserving them in Reaper form. This in turn would protect the lesser organics from threat. It's first target was its own creators, they became Harbinger, the first true Reaper." Shepard said.

"How Ironic." Dack said to no one in particular. "They created an AI to stop other Synthetics but were consumed by their own creation."

"Assuming what this man says is true." Orgus said once again.

"You disagree?" Gnost-Dural asked the aging Master.

"We have no proof of any of this." He defended.

"Everything I say is the truth, the Reapers will come again and doom your species..." Shepard just noticed something odd. "You're human?" He asked.

"Of course, so are you." Orgus said.

"How is that possible, the Reapers should have wiped out all of humanity." Shepard marveled. "Perhaps we have a chance, if the Krogan and Asari are still alive we can stop the Reapers." Shepard began to formulate the basics of a new strategy to defeat the Reapers in this cycle.

"Hold it." Orgus cut him off. "Even if what you say is true we will never be able to convince the Senate to put resources into this venture with the war going on." This peaked Shepard's interest.

"War?" He asked.

"The war with the Sith Empire." Satele answered. "We've been at war for 30 years now and have reached a stalemate."

"Damn." Shepard said. "There hasn't been an official war when I first fought the Reapers, even though there was still some bad blood with the Turians and Batarians."

"It's taking everything we have just to hold off the Sith, if we begin to divert resources to an unconfirmed threat it could weaken us enough to severely loose our position."

"If we don't prepare than everyone dies, the Sith and the... What are you guys called?" Shepard asked.

"The Galactic Republic." Dack answered.

"Fuck." Shepard cursed. "I'm going to have to play politician all over again." He said bitterly.

"All over again?" Satele asked.

"You think my civilization believed me? Wasn't till you had Reapers raining from the skies that anyone took me seriously, despite my Spectre Status." Shepard said than chose to elaborate on Spectre's given the looks on the Jedi Council. "Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, the most elite unit in the Council. Though that was revoked during my time with Cerberus and I never officially got re-instated as a Spectre after I told the Council to cram it." Shepard began to mumble to himself. "Not going to lie though, saving their skins back during Sovereign's attack was worth it to prove the Reapers existed, never let them live that down." He chuckled to himself but instantly got sad again, remembering that everything he knew is now gone.

"If what he says is true we should at the least report this to the Senate, give them our findings and see how best to approach this situation." Dack argued.

"They would never believe us, and even if they did what would we do about the Sith?" Orgus reasoned.

"We must do something." Shepard said. "I don't care what it takes, I will not let those bastards win again. Too many lives have been lost and no matter what it takes I will end them." Shepard said with fierce determination.

"And how exactly do you intend to convince the Senate of this discovery?" Orgus asked.

"I'll find a way." Shepard said simply. "I have no other choice."

"As amazing as your story is..." Satele began. "Even we find difficulty believing you, if we find difficulty than what will the Senate think?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter." Master Dack said. "We must bring this find to the Senate, if there is even a small chance that this could be real than it's enough to bring to light." Most agreed but Orgus still remained stubborn. "All in favor of speaking with the Senate?" Only Orgus did not speak out.

"It's decided." Master Satele said. "We will send a message to convene a Senate meeting on Coruscant, until then you will be given a room Shepard. You will be given all the basic things you will need, food, clothing and hygienics." Shepard nodded his head in affirmation.

After that the Council was broken up and went their separate ways, one of the staff in the Temple told Shepard to follow her to his room. Shepard walked in complete silence, without the distraction of the impending reaper threat as the main topic his mind wandered to the 50,000 years he has been under.

When he reached the room he shut the door and took off the Jedi clothing that he stole. He went into one of the shower stalls and turned the water until it was freezing cold. With no hesitation he stepped into the freezing cold torrent of water and let out a long and pained sigh. The sting from the water kept his mind off of the pain he felt for his lost comrades. Even now it hasn't really sunk in, he still can't comprehend the fact that every one of them are gone, either killed by the Reapers or passed away of natural causes.

All at once the Universe seemed so much darker, everything he did, everything that him and his entire family in arms have accomplished means nothing. Just another legend and rumor for future generations to pick at with a drill.

His mind then wandered to his Prothian ally Javik, so this is how it feels to wake up 50,000 years later. The once sprawling Empires reduced to cinder and forever lost in the fog of history. What kind of pain did Javik feel, how much invisible anger lurked under those 4 eyes. The more Shepard thought about the Prothian's anger the more it bubbled to the surface. Everything he was, everything he knew was forcefully taken from him. He would have his revenge, he will destroy the Reapers, even if he has to once again convince politicians, even if he has to topple Empires he will win.

* * *

Dack returned to his pupils room to once again encounter the floating objects that became a staple in her training. Using his mastery over the Force he willed the objects to lower and overpowered his Padawans own force output. Even though at this age her Force potential greatly outmatches his own, his expert control is more than enough to restrain her.

Adrial's eyes instantly shot open as she felt her Master overpower her and make her lose her concentration. She turned and jumped straight up to her Master, using a bit of force speed to get there even quicker.

"So how'd it go? Do I need to catch him again?" She asked but also mocked a bit.

"First off Padawan, you didn't beat him, had it not been for Cross you would have been choked out." Dack replied to his eager pupil.

"Well excuse me I can't beat a freaking god..." She muttered but loud enough for Dack to hear. "Next time I'll just let the possibly dangerous god go and have you search the Galaxy for him." Dack began to get a bit irritated.

"Mind your feelings of pride young one, such thoughts lead to the dark side." Adrial had a huge fear of the Dark side. Her early life as a slave to Sith rule created a instinctual fear of the Sith and the Dark side, every time it's mentioned she immediately stops and represses any emotion deemed dark by her Master.

"Apologies Master." She said with a bow. Dack knew that she always get's formal when afraid. Normally he would also lecture her of the danger of fear but seeing as how it's a fear for the dark side he didn't feel the need. Another trait that Adrial had that all Masters wanted was her fear, no worries of her ever being turned. At least not by her own choice, she would never seek out the darkness but there are ways the Sith can convince you if captured. It's a way Dack knows all to well.

"What was your question?" Dack decided to drop the subject. Instantly that look of eagerness and discovery filled her youthful eyes.

"So did he talk?" She asked, willing herself to answer one question at a time.

"He did." Dack said.

"So what's going on?" She referred to the warning the AI gave.

Dack explained everything that happened, every revelation and every single choice made by the Council. Dack would also be going to the Senate as one of the founders of Shepard and also act as Shepard's guide in this new Galaxy.

"And that's about it." Dack finished. From there they began having a very long talk, talk about all the possible theories Adrial had and how amazing the discovery was. Dack just smiled to himself at his Padawan's eagerness. In the back of his mind he began thinking of an old fear of his, the possibilities of her being captured and tortured by the Sith. As heartless as it may sound, he could deal with her dying. There are worse things in dying and at least he would be reunited with her after his own death. But to be forcefully turned by the Sith or broken by their sadistic ways, the thought made him sick.

"Is he you know... evil?" Adrial hesitated to ask.

"Not from what I could tell, he seemed much like any other soldier really. Had a strict and professional nature about him and was very good at keeping his emotions in control. No doubt he's feeling a bit of shock, fear and anger from his recent ordeal." Dack explained with a bit of thought.

"How old is he?" Adrial asked with a light blush on her face, Dack could feel her anxiety and simply labeled it as another side effect of her fear of him.

"Not sure how that question is relevant." Dack said with a raised eyebrow. "But I'd put his age in late 20s to late 30s. Then again with how evolution works his species could live to 1,000 for all we know and he could be 300 or something." Dack began to mumble to himself a bit, which Adrial always got annoyed with. Dack had a habit of over analyzing every detail so she just got into the habit of zoning out and walking away. Most of the time he wouldn't realize she left until he actually tried to talk to her.

Adrial decided she wanted to meet this god for herself and figure out just what he was. She looked around for a bit before she felt the mans presence in a small room. While not the best at feeling others feelings, she could make out the distinct emotions of sorrow and anger. It made her feel a bit intimidated but at the same time a bit anxious. Steeling herself and suppressing her emotions she entered the room to find Shepard sitting on the bed, his back turned to her. She could feel that he was deep in thought, through not only the force but his body language as well.

Shepard noticed her presence and turned to the young woman, his brow raised in recognition of the Jedi he nearly choked out. Shepard was still dressed in the robe that she fought him in and Adrial still felt intimidated by his very presence. After a long moment of silence she raised her hand in greeting and spoke to him in a quite voice.

"Hi." She greeted meekly. Shepard returned the greeting with a nod and turned his whole body to face her.

"Sorry about the fight earlier." Shepard said in an honest voice. Adrial could feel he meant it and waved it off.

"It's ok, it was probably my fault anyway." She said. "After all, you did just wake up so it was understandable that you woke up that way." Shepard nodded to her.

"I never got your name." Shepard realized and spoke his thought out loud.

"Adrial Shantih, Jedi in training." She announced proudly.

"Never thought they would let people as young as you in." Shepard said without knowing the irony behind his words. Adrial flushed in indignation at the remark but controlled her pride, knowing that he just probably didn't really know much about Jedi's.

"For your information, I am 20 years old." She said with a bit more venom than intended. Shepard cracked a smile and laughed lightly, but genuinely.

"Really?" He said with a bit of surprise. "I would have thought you're at most 16." He said, his mood getting much better. Adrial could feel that as of now his feelings were peaceful and happy, sort of. May be a bit embarrassing to be seen as a kid but at least she helped him feel a bit better.

"So..." She didn't know how to begin her question. "What was your civilization like?" She asked hopefully. She desperately wanted to know what kind of people he lived with and the kind of civilization he originated from.

"What do you want to know?" Shepard asked, Adrial thought for a second. She fought real hard with her self to try and limit it to 1 question at a time and not get the better of herself by saying 20 questions at once.

"What was your Religion like?" She asked randomly. The force in itself was a Religion, perhaps with the strange force powers he displayed it would give insight to the kind of Force followed during his time.

"Well..." Shepard began trying to remember his affiliation with the question. "Originally I was an Atheist, or Agnostic, however you want to define it. I never really had a care for it. A woman who was really close to me however was what was called a Christian, she believed in an all powerful God or something like that. Frankly I don't know much about the Religion. After everything that's happened and how much she was passionate in the Religion, I guess a part of me would like to believe. Sometimes I go back and forth but these days I've been leaning more towards her beliefs." Shepard said.

"Were there more than one?" She asked.

"Many, for humans alone there was many Religions but most fall under the category of believing in a single God. For the Asari many believed in a Goddess or spiritualism. Many Turians believed in War gods or again Spiritualism. I'm not to familiar with the subject really." He admitted.

"Asari? Turian?" Adrial asked.

"Asari are an entirely female race, capable of same sex pro-creation but are also capable of inter-species procreation." Shepard said. "However the child always comes out as a Female Asari." He said.

"How does that work?" Adrial asked.

"Not entirely sure, They can mind meld or something with each other and reproduce. Other than that they have working sexual organs. I even dated an Asari for a time." Shepard admitted.

"What do they look like?" Adrial asked.

"They have blue skin, most are very beautiful. But instead of hair they have long appendages on their head. Other than that they look more or less human." Shepard said.

"And the Turians?" She asked.

"Basically giant looking lizards, or fish, depending on how you look at them. Their society is very war like. Asari are the technological apex of civilizations... or were anyway." Shepard said downheartedly. "Turians however were regarded to have the strongest Military in the Galaxy, or at least the strongest Space Fleet. The strongest ground Military goes to the Krogan." Shepard noticed Adrial's interest and held his hand up to stop her. "Even bigger looking lizards, their society is defined by instinctual and clan based warfare, in a society that demands strength and power above all else. Their inter-species wars tore their home planet apart many years ago. At one point after the Rachni wars the Krogan nearly destroyed the Galaxy."

"Rachni?" Adrial asked.

"About 1,000 years ago a race known as the Rachni, giant bug like aliens threatened the Galaxy. The Council at the time, made up of representatives from the strongest species in the Galaxy, used the Krogan's to defeat the Rachni. It wasn't until a few months ago that I discovered that they were indoctrinated to do the Reapers bidding." When Adrial asked what the Reapers were Shepard gave her the same explanation as the Jedi Masters.

"Incredible." Adrial said to herself.

"That's enough for now." Shepard said, growing tired. "I need to get some rest." Adrial nodded, a bit sad to have her talk end but she understood that Shepard must be tired.

"Thank you Shepard." She said with an ear wide smile. "I really appreciated it." She said. Before she could finish Shepard's head hit the bed and he was out cold. Adrial blushed slightly as she watched him sleep. He reminded her so much of the Mandalorian who saved her life from slavery.

Adrial remembered that day fondly. She was to be shipped to the Sith training planet, though she could not recall its name, and forced to become a Sith. The night before her departure she managed to escape, but just barely. A Mandalorian hunter was sent by the Sith to recapture her. To this day she doesn't know why the Mandalorian saved her and took her to the republic.

When she spoke to Master Dack about it when she was younger he said the Bounty Hunter was probably offered a better deal by the Republic. Those sort only care for credits he said. Adrial however liked to believe that there was some good in him, that when he saw the young and scared girl that he protected her and felt bad. Adrial refused to believe that he did it simply out of greed. She witnessed first hand as a child how greedy people act and there is no way that Bounty Hunter was like that. At least, that's what she was told.

She never even saw his face, the reason Shepard seems so much like him is they both act and speak in a similar way.

Turning around and marching out of Shepard's room she quietly turned off his light and allowed the door to close automatically. Soon she would finally travel to the center of the Republic and meet the Senate. Finally, after her whole life of training she was going to do things vital to the war effort. Like many young Jedi she craved for the chance to prove her worth, to do her part in defense of the Republic.

Exited for the new adventures around the corner she decided to stay up all night and train to be better prepared for the trials ahead. With a heart full of valor she would make a name for herself and prove to the Galaxy that she is more than a simple slave girl.

**End Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4: War Without Blood

**Important: **I'm going to do something a bit different here. As a general fan of science one of the things I love learning are theories on how Star Wars technology can be implemented in real life. Lasers do not work like they do in Star Wars, not to mention light can not cause the damage that they can do in the movies and games. So I'm changing the science behind it just a bit to something more realistic and even in a way that would equalize the technology between Star Wars and Mass Effect, I am a very huge fan of science so these are actually current theories to how the science of star wars could be turned into fact.

Also, I do understand many of the cliche's that Star Wars has. For example the terrible aim of storm troopers and in no rendition did it ever show anything close to realistic and practical military tactics. To rectify this I will have them have their own unique style to war, one that stays true to the cliche's of the games/movies but at the same time be practical and useful in the Star Wars universe. For example, most soldiers will not use cover like Shepard or real life modern tactics, this is because their armor is so useful at stopping Blaster rounds it's not as practical. Heavy armor really makes it difficult to take cover and move easily so if it can take a beating it's more effective to stand in the open then duck in cover. Like I said, making the cliche's of the games/movies sensible and practical in the Star Wars universe.

**Chapter 4: War Without Blood **

Shepard was pacing for a good while, he was currently in a room in the crew quarters of a Republic Starfighter Carrier. It was surrounded by dozens of Star Cruisers and other warships. The ships had red and white paintings, the colors of the republic, and shaped like a cylinder with large engines in the back. It came complete with large guns and blaster technologies to protect them from an enemy attack.

Currently they were at the Republic fleet, a large collection of capital ships that acted as the command center of the entire Military of the Republic. The best way Shepard could describe it was a city in space. There were trade stations, armories, training rooms and command centers where officers would go about developing plan to win the war.

Shepard was not exited in the least bit, with his experiences in dealing with politics he knew that this was going to be nothing more then days of debating, being labled as crazy and constantly being ridiculed for whatever reason because his information could effect the power of some rich ass politician.

Shepard has been cooped up too long so he decided to explore the ship a little bit, maybe find a workout area to train and work off some stress. It was strange going through the ship, there were men in all kinds of different uniforms moving around and acting in a similar fashion to the Alliance. Shepard was also amazed at the large diversity of the dozens, even hundreds of species that he could never hope to learn them all. There was never this many species and nver a place where they all concentrated in one place. Back then there was a level of bigotry between species but it seems that this era the only form or bigotry was between the light side and dark side Religion.

Shepard used this opportunity to learn more about the political situation of the Galaxy. From what he gathered this Empire came out of no where 30 years ago and has been at war with the Republic since. Not too lon ago the warrin factions entered a stalemate that is now on the verge of collapse. Each side is arming and preparing for another open conflict but until then they lick their wounds and prepare for battle.

This Religion was the center of the conflict. The light side promoted the values of peace through knowledge and justice while the dark side, the Sith promoted peace through strength, passion an control. Same goals but different methods.

I eventually found the training room where that one soldier that hit me in the head was training. Cross I believe his name was, a part of Hammer squad or something.

"Good to see you." He nodded at me. I got to speak with him a few times and we shared a respectful attitude towards each other. Though we were from different eras and armies that comradery you get from meeting a man that went through the same hell as you supersedes all else.

"You too, mind if I train with you for a bit?" I asked. He nodded.

"Ever used a Blaster before?" He asked.

"I used something similar, instead of blasting energy it shoots out a piece of metal the size of a grain of sand at a fraction of the speed of light." Shepard explained.

"Well, let's see what you can do with a blaster." He said and handed Shepard a basic blaster pistol.

"How does it work?" Shepard asked curiously.

"This box in front of the trigger is a container that houses Hydrogen Atoms. Those Atoms are forced into the main chamber of the gun, located behind the barrel. From there the Atoms are fused together, creating super heated gas. This Gas solidifies and turns into Plasma." Cross instructed.

"So it's the same principle that powers a star?" Shepard asked.

"Something like that, this Plasma is forced out the barrel and stays condensed enough to impact and object like a solid mass. However, when it impacts an object it looses it's density and is instantly cooled down back into a Gas. Problem with super heating Plasma that fast is that it cools just as quickly. The end result is a severe burn that can penetrate as far as 3 inches without armor. With Armor though it's rather easy to survive." He continued to explain.

"How does the Armor work?" Shepard asked.

"You have 3 main classes, light, medium and heavy. Light Armor normally goes to the Jedi's. It's light, easy to move in and works fine for them. They mainly use it to stop shrapnel from an explosion or something like that. After all, you saw that even a Padawan can block a Blaster bolt." Shepard nodded, knowing from experience that even the young Adrial was capable of blocking a few shots. "Medium and Heavy Armor is made from a dense kind of polymer, Medium Armor is usually thinner and less dense but Heavy Armor is very dense. It's capable of stopping most bolts but will wear down if constantly hit."

"I think that makes sense." Shepard never was too bright with science. Aside from basic schooling he doesn't know much beyond that. He's a soldier, nothing more.

"So let's see what you can do." Cross pointed to a few targets down the range. The Targets were holograms that moved realistically like normal people. They had some kind of strange armor and Shepard assumed it was the armor of the Sith Empire. Would make sense, he used to shoot at Batarian and Turian targets during his days in Boot Camp.

The Plaster itself was interesting, it looked very similar to a Mauser pistol, an old Earth gun from WW1. It was even complete with the trademark Broom handle grip which was considered one of the best designs of the day. On the top though was a small scope that helped greatly with aim though Shepard didn't understand why it needed one. Pistols normally have a very short range so iron sights are more effective than scopes but then again this is a different time and most likely different tactics.

Holding it in the traditional Alliance stance, his arms extended and both hands on the grip to keep it steady he squeezed the trigger at the targets. The blast itself was actually pretty light, the recoil was more comparable to a very weak pistol. Shepard instantly managed to switch targets and fire bursts in rapped succession, taking out all of the targets quickly and efficiently.

"Interesting stance." Cross commented.

"How so?" Shepard asked. Cross too his own blaster, which did not look familiar to Shepard at all, and stood relevantly straight with one hand holding the Pistol out.

"Keep your body turned to make yourself less of a target." Cross demonstrated. "And use only 1 hand, keeping the other one near your other weapon, either a second pistol or thermal detonator." He said and fired the shots down range. Unlike Shepard they were less accurate but with the tracer effect of the moving plasma accuracy meant little when you can compensate easily. Shepard noticed a distinct difference in their styles. Since his armor's shields could only take a burst of fire before dropping he needed to be accurate and keep in cover. With the powerful armor of these Republic troops they don't need to be in cover as often and their style is more about lessening your profile than staying hidden. For how their technology is, this is actually very effective for them.

"Pretty good, but i think the 2 handed approach gives better accuracy." Shepard commented.

"True enough but it also gives you a larger profile, making it easier for the enemy to hit you." Cross countered. For another few minutes they just began bickering back and forth about which way was better. Even though they didn't agree they silently understood the reason behind the differences and why it made sense for each man.

After a bit more time passed and the 2 veterans practiced some more it was finally time for their arrival to the city planet of Coruscant, former home of the Jedi Temple and the center of the Republic. Shepard watched as the ship descended through the clouds from a window located in the mess area. The city was amazing, even more so that he learned that it spread across the entire planet. He was both appalled by the destruction of the natural world but completely amazed at the shear scope and technological scale to do such a thing.

The city itself reminded him of Illium, even the buildings looked very similar but this dwarfed Illium to the point that it looked more like a town in comparison.

The shipped docked and was already getting loaded with supplies and fuel as the Military officers, politicians and Jedi made their way down the large ramp that allowed exit from the Republic ship.

Shepard walked out and looked around in subtle amazement, Adrial studying his reaction like a researcher would a mouse and Dack kept a clam face, clearly not interested in anything other than reaching their destination. Cross parted ways to ensure they got the food and other supplies for the Starfighter Carrier but he said he would join them again when it was time to depart.

"Did you have any worlds like this?" Adrial asked out of the blue.

"Sort of, it's very similar to Illium but much larger in scale. Hope it doesn't suffer from the same crime infestations and legal corruptions... Then again, going under Council Law helped me on more than one occasion." Shepard snorted, still very sore about how the Council treated him. The though provoked a pang of guilt as he remembered that they most likely died a terrible death during the war. Shepard hated them but they didn't deserve what the Reapers did, if only they...

Shepard stopped himself there, no use thinking of what ifs and could have beens. Time to look forward and ensure this civilization doesn't follow the same fate as his. With his sorrow and anger replaced with conviction he dropped the conversation and continued on with his current task. Adrial studied his reaction and knew that he was deep in thought and decided to respectfully drop the subject, even though her curiosity demanded compensation.

The Senate Tower was without a doubt proof to Shepard's secret theory that Politicians are more theatrical than practical. It was large, shiny and completely adorned with amazing decorations and expensive looking furniture.

"The meeting will begin soon, this is not going to be easy to convince the Senate to take any kind of action with this." Dack said to Shepard.

"We'll find some kind of compromise, I know how politics work. Worst case scenario I'll go with plan B." Shepard said cryptically.

"Which is?" Dack asked, clearly wanting to know Shepard's plan before putting his reputation and metaphorical head on the line. Shepard knew Dack would probably call it off if he knew his history with politics. What did Udina call it, a "Political Shit-storm"?

"Let's go." Shepard said, ignoring the question.

As they entered the Senate chamber Shepard was again amazed by the scale of the place. Convincing 3 council members took almost 3 years, dozens of life threatening missions and the Reapers falling from the skies for them to believe him. How the hell is he going to convince a thousand Senators who didn't even have a legend about the Reapers outside of crappy ass cave drawing from a tribal race?

"I swear Ash." Shepard mumbled to himself angrily. "If there is a God please tell him to go fuck himself for me."

"Come again?" Dack asked, not entirely sure what Shepard said.

"Nothing." Shepard said and walked up to the massive center box where he would have to give his speech.

The Senate stopped their chatter as the final Senators and Jedi finally arrived. Shepard felt somewhat nervous but he was more concerned about them not listening or taking the threat seriously and having to watch a second Reaper invasion. Finally after what felt like hours Dack went up to what looked like microphones and began to speak in a loud and powerful voice.

"My fellow Republicans, I am Master Jedi Dack Enz. Recently, on an Archaeological dig we discovered the ruins of an ancient civilization. The technology was advanced and it was a massive collection of Alliances and Empires that lasted for thousands of ears. This civilization however was wiped out around 50,000 years ago. The only survivor is this man..." He motioned to Shepard. "Commander Shepard, he has been frozen in Stasis all these years and he has extremely important information to share with us all, that could bring to light a greater threat than the Empire." With that he motioned for Shepard to begin his speech.

"50,000 years ago..." Shepard began carefully, making sure to make it sound like he wasn't a lunatic. "My civilization was at the height of its power. The 4 major Council races, our version of the Galactic Senate, was comprised of the largest and greatest Military force in the known Galaxy at the time. All our technology was based off of what we believed at the time to be Prothian Technology. The Prothian's were the dominate race that existed 50,000 years before our time. One day however their Empire was destroyed...

At first, the scavenged technologies that we found, the Mass Relays, the Citadel etc. were thought to have originated from them. We couldn't have been more wrong however. The technology was built by a race of sentient machines, what we called Reapers. They were machines built by a race we called the Leviathans, considered to be the first true Race. They built an AI system to protect organics from Synthetics, but were caught up in their own foolish pride. They were harvested and became the first true Reaper, Harbinger...

They sleep in Dark-space, the empty space outside of the Galaxy and return every 50,000 years to harvest advanced civilizations to create new Reapers. The AI, or the Catalyst is what controls them. The time is soon approaching when they will return to harvest your civilization. In order to survive we must prepare and defeat them." Shepard concluded, waiting for either a barrage of questions or being out right denounced.

"What is their purpose?" One Senator asked.

"To protect Organic life. Organics create Synthetics, Robots capable of sentient thought. In turn they rise up against their Organic creators. If left unchecked Synthetics would wipe out Organics. To protect the Organics they Harvest the advanced civilizations, leaving the younger ones alone and preserving the older in the form of a Reaper. Or so they say. In reality they are nothing more than Synthetics, contradicting themselves by destroying us."

What followed was loud chatter among themselves.

"Do you have any viable proof?" A Senator asked.

"Other than my existence and the data stored in the ruins I was found in... no." Shepard knew what was coming.

"He speaks the truth." Dack stepped in. "The data recovered from the site shows undeniable proof that this "Reaper" race exists." He defended.

"For all we know they could be extinct as well." Another Senator countered.

"They've been around for millions of years, it's unlikely." Shepard said, though secretly hoping that they were dead. Ok, the odds that they were are almost non-existent but it's nice to fantasize.

"We do not deny that you have been in stasis for 50,000 years, just that there is not nearly enough proof to waste resources to defend against some fairy tale. We are in the middle of a Cold War with the Empire right now and are too busy amassing enough resources to win this war." A Senator said logically.

"What if it is real?" Shepard asked.

"What if it isn't? Than we would have wasted valuable resources and that can only hurt our efforts in this war right now." Other Senators voiced their agreements.

"And if it is real than you will all die and your entire way of life will become extinct!" Shepard yelled, silencing everyone present. "The Council of my cycle was nothing more than a bunch of egotistical, frightened children that did not take the threat seriously until it was too late. By the time they began preparations it was already too late. I was hoping that this Cycle would maybe have a little bit more of a spine and a bit more sense to actually prepare for an invasion instead of sitting on their asses again."

Shepard's little speech was followed by a deafening silence. Shepard guessed through some of their faces that at least some of them thought this would gather looking into.

After some time the meeting was put on hold for the Senate to discuss. Shepard had to wait outside along with Dack and Adrial, who looked at him shocked.

"Are you crazy?" Dack asked. "You just screamed, denounced and insulted the entire Senate. Not a very good idea to get them on your side."

"I think it was awesome." Adrial said, clearly still at the rebellious stage. Shepard wondered just how sheltered these Jedi were if a 20 year old was still acting like a teenager.

"Awesome? I bet my reputation on you... This is nothing but a..." Shepard stopped him there.

"An old "Friend"..." Shepard used the term loosely. "Called it a Political Shit-storm, pretty accurate if you ask me. Besides, those high and mighty rich snobs need a good humility check every now and again." Shepard said, clearly not a big fan of politicians.

"You'll be lucky if they just decide to disregard everything you say. They may just denounce you and make you seem like a crazy fool and lock you up." Dack said.

After some time they were finally allowed back in, the Senate has finally reached a decision. An old Senator stood up with the verdict and said...

"Commander Shepard, in light of the possibilities that this thing can exist, we will allow you to assemble a crew and search for hard evidence of this threat. If you manage to find reliable evidence of this threat than we will consider how best to deal with it." Shepard was no fool in politics. He knew this was just a clever way of getting him out of their business. By sending him on what they consider to be an impossible job they effectively take him out of the equation.

"You will be permitted a ship, along with Master Dack, his Padawan and Havoc squad, led by LT. Cross." Another Senator said.

"So be it." Shepard said, although knowing they were trying to get rid of him he would play fetch for now and get the proof they need. Shepard savored every moment when he finally got to show the Council that the threat was real, he would enjoy this just as much. "I will get your proof, just hope that I can convince you before they return from Dark-space and kill us all." And the meeting was finally concluded for now.

* * *

About an hour later Shepard was in the mess hall, arm wrestling Cross, who he'd developed a very good friendship with. Despite their differences they were still soldiers and had a massive amount of respect for one another. Shepard was strong but Cross easily beat him each time, showing that he was stronger than Shepard physically.

"It takes more than Strength to be a good soldier." Shepard defended with a laugh.

"If it makes you feel better Commander." Cross mocked Shepard playfully by using his Rank.

"Keep in mind who's in charge LT." Shepard countered. Adrial was on the couch, absently twirling a few small objects with the Force and bored out of her mind. She's not exactly into the whole macho display of strength thing. While not exactly a girly-girl, she didn't act masculine either.

"Good news." Dack entered. "I managed to get us a really good ship, decent speed, good weapons and enough armor to hold it's own against most Imperial ships." He showed Shepard the hologram of the ship. "It's a Light Corvette, Defender Class. Since you're the Commander I think you should come up with the name."

"Wow, it's blue..." Adrial said. "Much better than the plain old Red color."

Shepard thought about calling it the Normandy but somehow it didn't feel right. It looked nothing like it. Shepard kept the name Normandy for the SR-2 because he felt that the upgraded version carried the spirit of his old ship. This looked nothing like it so it would feel insulting to name it that. With some thought Shepard thought of the perfect name, one that carried on the spirit of one of his oldest and closest friends.

"We'll call it the Vakarian." He said.

"That's a strange name." Cross said. "But I like it, got a good ring to it." And with that it wa settled. Tomorrow they would christen the knew ship. Shepard insisted that they do an old Earth custom where they would break a champagne bottle as it is launched. While they had no idea what champagne was Cross would look for a good alcoholic beverage to be used in its place.

With everything settled for now they all retreated to their rooms for a good nights sleep. Despite everything that has happened since the battle for Earth Shepard went to sleep with determination and feelings of pride. He would not be beat a second time. With the Crucible a no go this Cycle he would have to find another way to win. For now though he had to play politician and fetch in order to even get that far. Soon he fell into a dreamless sleep and his breath slowed down to a steady and rhythmic pace.

**End Chapter: 4 **


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